, of the Rocky Mountain Institute
, lives in a solar powered and super-insulated home in Colorado. He coined the term “Negawatts” for energy saved via conservation and has been working for the last 30 / 35 years for sustainable and intelligent energy policy.
I met Lovins 31 years ago, in Albany, NY, in 1976. I was an energy intern for the New York Public Interest Research Group, NYPIRG, studying nuclear power, nuclear economics, and clean energy alternatives under Dr. Marvin Resnikoff at SUNY – Buffalo.
We were in Albany to testify before the New York State Legislature’s Committee on Energy, the Economy, and the Environment. And argue:
- Their priorities were wrong. As shown by their title, they put energy first, the economy second, and the environment came last.
- Rather than nuclear power, we should be looking at clean renewable energy. “Theoretically,” we argued, “we could power the New York City Subways with wind turbines positioned off-shore of Long Island.
Little has changed. However, I wouldn’t use the term “Theoretically” today. Look at the Arklow Bank wind farm, (built by GE and Airtricity) and the 11.6 gigawatt of wind power generating capacity in the United States today.
We can power our cities, towns, suburbs with solar panels on the roofs, geothermal in the basement or the backyard, and wind turbines on the mountains and off-shore. The people / nations / economies who do this first will leap far beyond those who try to play catch-up.